Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Tools Incorporated into OSD

Although completely integrated into ConfigMgr, OSD uses and takes advantage of multiple separate tools. Knowing how OSD uses these tools and each tool's function is beneficial and even critical when setting up a deployment and troubleshooting problems. Tools include Sysprep, the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), and USMT, covered in the next sections.

Sysprep

Sysprep, short for System Preparation, is one of the primary tools used for unattended setup of all flavors of Windows. When used for imaging, Sysprep removes the many unique identifiers specific to a particular installation of Windows and then configures the installation to run a brief, GUI-based, mini-setup when the system restarts. This minisetup provides these benefits:

• Generates new and unique identifiers for the system
• Enables the input of a new Windows product key
• Reruns the plug-and-play hardware detection
• Reruns the driver installation process

For a complete and in-depth discussion of why Sysprep is the only supported method to make a Windows image generic, see Mark Russinovich's blog post at http://blogs.technet. com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx.

Sysprep in OSD

OSD fully automates the mini-setup process with a configuration file. The name of the file varies based on the version of Windows used:

• Unattend.xml for Windows 7
• Sysprep.inf for Windows XP

OSD either builds the appropriate file or uses one supplied to it, inserting the information automatically into the Sysprep configuration file. This information includes the product key, organization name, networking information, and domain credentials.

Incorporating this functionality adds to OSD's flexibility by eliminating the need to maintain multiple Sysprep files supporting multiple deployment scenarios.

Version-Specific Flavors

Each version of Windows has its own specific version of Sysprep. For versions of Windows before Vista, you must make Sysprep available to the setup process separately by creating a package or placing the files in % SystemRoot %\sysprep. You can find these files in the deploy.cab compressed file located in the \Support folder on the installation media or download them from the Microsoft download site, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads.

Note that the deploy.cab contents are dependent on service pack level, so if you are sysprepping Windows XP SP 3, you should use the corresponding available download.

For Windows Vista and later, the Sysprep files come with the OS and are located in % windir %\System32\sysprep.